Foreign coach a must for Indian hockey, says former national coach

This leaves the federation of finding a new coach in a year with Asian Games awaiting while just 17 months are left for the Paris Olympics. Reports suggest HI is looking at names such as Siegfried Aikman, Shane McLeod among foreign faces while former India coach Harendra Singh is also in the fray as the indigenous name.

Indian hockey is currently accepting applications for the position till February 15, leaving the race open for new prospects to join in. However, one thing looks certain that Harendra, who currently serves as the coach of the US men’s team, will be the sole Indian in the race.

Former national team player and coach Romeo James pointed out that a foreign coach must continue to be at the helm of the side for India.

“New Zealand’s Shane McLeod is the right man for the job, no doubt and he is not coaching any national team as well, other coaches are not free,” James told Mykhel. “He has been coaching at a high level for over 15 years now with New Zealand, then Belgium and knows how to win titles especially when we have Asian Games coming up next.”

‘Indian-foreign coach combo’

In the past, inclusive of Reid’s stint, murmurs have been heard of how players have struggled to understand the process of foreign coaches. It wasn’t the case at least during Harendra’s era with women’s and then the men’s national team between 2017 and 2019 when players reportedly wanted him to continue as he understood the culture and was easy to communicate with.

James, who won the Asian Games silver medal as a player (1982) and then as a coach (1994), suggested that Hockey India can opt for a unique dual-coaching approach with a foreign and an Indian leading the team together.

“As far as Indian coaches are concerned, we don’t have many options there as we failed to train them as far as modern hockey is concerned. But we can try a mixture of foreign and Indian coaches, with both holding the same position. It can’t be the case of an Indian coach working under a foreign coach,” said the 2015 Dhyan Chand awardee.

James also had kind words to say about the outgoing coach Reid, praising him for building up a professional team, who worked as a unit.

“They were playing as a team under Reid. We might not have the best of players but every player had their role in the team. We attacked as a unit, and defended as a unit. Reid did a good job except for the Commonwealth Games (silver medal) and matches against Australia, the team did well leading to the World Cup,” said James.

However, the 64-year-old retired coach felt the outgoing Australian failed to make the most out of the upcoming talents by building a bigger core team for the World Cup after the likes of Rupinder Pal Singh and Birender Lakra retired after the Olympics.

In fact, at the World Cup, the Indian defence was praised a lot for not leaking many goals during the group stages but conceding a 3-1 lead to New Zealand in the eventual ouster showed that the defence was error-prone under pressure.

Impotence in the attack was telling too as barring the Japan game in classification rounds, the Indian attack left a lot to be desired with the likes of Manpreet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Abhishek failing to fire in the matches that mattered.

Indian midfielders lacked creativity as well once Hardik Singh and Akashdeep Singh were forced out of the tournament with injuries, exposing the lack of depth.

“I think Graham Reid could have made a bigger core team for the World Cup. India have a talented A and B team, which in turn could have helped have a bigger roster of player to pick for the World Cup, especially after the likes of Rupinder retired. It’s difficult to replace somebody like Hardik but Nilkanta (Sharma) and Vivek (Sagar Prasad) didn’t perform well in the midfield.” said James.

The result against New Zealand came as a surprise for many as well as the same outfit’s defence seemed too weak to counter the Indian attack during the FIH Pro League in last October and November (4-3 and 7-4 respectively)

“Even I expected New Zealand match to be a formality because of the way we defeated them in FIH Pro League at the same venue. But a tournament being that close to the World Cup also meant New Zealand were never going to reveal all their cards. India being a World No. 6 team should have expected that, they are a professional side,” said James.

The morale-sapping debacle could certainly take some time for the Indian players to revive but with just 16 months to go for the Olympics, there’s not much time to waste.

“I don’t think Hockey India will like to waste much time before finding Reid’s successor. And it’s going to be tough for the new coach. He will have a huge task in hand to quickly get down to the business with Asian Games and Olympics next,” concluded James.